Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I talked about some energy alternatives for the residents of Tu Nedhe. I’d like to ask the Minister of the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, Mr. Bob McLeod, some questions.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House: are there any plans under the energy program to provide assistance to our residents for this winter?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee coordinates all the energy initiatives for the government, because energy consumption crosses all departmental lines.
We do have a program that’s been in place starting last year. It’s a program to assist homeowners and consumers so that they can replace products that are in everyday use and reduce their costs by improving their energy consumption.
Can the Minister provide me with some details on what’s planned, if anything, to assist residents of Tu Nedhe?
We do have a number of initiatives underway. The primary one is the Energy Efficiency Incentive program, and that’s part of a program we had last year.
This year we’ve revised the program substantially. We’re focusing on home heating. We have a number of initiatives there. One is that we’re providing a rebate for purchase of wood stoves, because the use of wood stoves is one of the easiest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We also have rebates for wood pellet heating appliances and for high efficiency oil furnaces.
Also, in the communities that are in the Member’s riding fuel is disbursed by the Petroleum Products Division, and there are some subsidies involved in setting that price.
Can the Minister tell us when he can provide cross government details on budgets and what is being planned for the various departments under the energy initiatives? When can the Minister provide some of that detail?
I can advise the Member that with regard to rebates for wood stoves we’re increasing the rebate to $400 from $300. As well, for wood pellet heating furnaces we’re increasing the rebates to $700 for pellet furnaces and $1,000 for pellet boilers.
As far as government departments, all government departments are involved in developing energy conservation measures. We will be rolling them out as part of the business planning process.
Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell us if the government has had a serious look at the viable alternative of just simply providing wood stoves to people who cannot afford wood stoves? People who cannot afford wood stoves cannot get to the point where they’ll be requesting the rebate. Is there any alternative for those people who can’t afford to buy the stove upfront so they can never access the rebate?
We recognize that the high cost of energy is one that is going to affect all of the people of the Northwest Territories. We will be rolling out a very extensive program that is currently under development. Any of these kinds of suggestions will be undertaken.
I can add that the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation is looking at those kinds of suggestions as to how we can help people who can’t afford to buy wood stoves but would like to utilize them. We are taking all of these into consideration as we go forward. We’ll be bringing them forward as part of the business planning process.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
